The Military Forces of tlie Republic. 



AN ADDRESS 



llKLIVERED BEFORE 



THE SOCIETY 



APiMY OF THE POTOMAC 



ANNUAL REUNION, 





^jl:^^^2^-z-, i<t. -Z-. 








JUNK 


18, 1879, 






By 


JOSEPH R. 


HAWLEY, 


M. 


C, 


Of 


Connecticut; late Brig, an 


1 Brevet Major-General U 


S. Vol 






WASHINGTON, D. C; 




i 






1879. 




1 



The Military Forces of tlie Republic. 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE 



THE SOCIETY 



Army of the Potomac 



ANNUAL REUNION, 

JUNE 18, 1879, 
By JOSEPH R. HAWLEY, M. C, 

Ur Connecticut; late liris;. ami I'.revet Major-Gencr.il U. S. Vols. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 
1879. 



Pf ^ 



^ 

^ 






NOTE. 



The Annual Reviniou of the Society of the Array of the Potomac, at 
Albany, June 18, 1879, was one of the most successful of these notable 
and most enjoyable aftairs. [More new members enrolled themselves 
than at any previous meeting since the first. At 2 p. m., the society was 
escorted to Tweddle Hall by the "Red, White, and Blue Battalion," com- 
posed of the Albany Burgesses Corps, the Old Guard of New York, and 
the Utica Citizens' Corps. 

The beautifully decorated hall was crowded, and many ladies were 
present in the galleries. Music was furnished by Austin's 10th Regiment 
(New York) band, the large drum corps of Post No. 2, G. A. R., of 
Philadelphia, and the Soldier's Orphan Boy band, of the same city. The 
exercises were interspersed with the music of old songs, bugle and drum 
calls of the camp and the march, and national airs. 

Major General W. B. Franklin presided. The Rev. Dr. Reese invoked 
the Divine blessing. S. W. Rosendale, Esq., City Attorney, representing 
the Mayor, welcomed the Society in behalf of the citizens of Albany, 
whose unbounded, cordiality and hospitality made a deep impression. 
General Franklin responded heartily. The stage contained two large 
stacks of battle-flags, whose entry into the hall was greeted with a stormy 
welcome. Sitting by them were Generals Schofield, Franklin, Sickles, 
(chosen president of the society,) N. M. Curtis, J. C. Robinson, McQuade, 
Barnvim, Shari^e, McMahon, Ilartranft, Governor Van Zandt, of Rhode 
Island, Attorney-General Devens, and many others. Francis M. Finch, 
Esq., of Ithaca, author of "The Blue and the Gray," read a noble poem, 
"The Songs of the Guns." General Hawley delivered the following ad- 
dress. He is glad to say that his sentiments were heartily approved. He 
considers it rather an essay upon an important subject than an attempt at 
an oration. From the type used to provide slips for the press, he has 
printed a limited edition, chiefly for personal friends. 






THE ADDRESS. 



Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I certainly should have declined the honor of addressing 
you, if I could have foreseen that a few days after writing 
ray acceptance Congress was to be summoned to three months 
of anxious and absorbing public duty ; and upon receiving 
the summons to Washington I should assuredly have begged 
for a release, had not everybody been anticipating an ad- 
journment of Congress from week to week. I accepted, 
thinking at the moment that I had in my mind a topic that 
might prove interesting. That the discussions of the last 
three months have given it renewed interest formed no suffi- 
cient reason for laying it aside. 

It is not out of place before this audience to discuss the 
Military Forces of the Republic, considered both in relation 
to foreign war and domestic violence, and their subordina- 
tion to the civil authority. It is hardly necessary to assure 
you that in considering these topics it is not done with ref- 
erence to anything that has been a subject of party debate. 
It seems quite certain that the true doctrine can be laid down 
in such manner as to command the assent of all thoughtful 
men, without entering upon the particulars that have given 
rise to heated party strife. 

Within fifteen years after the close of our tremendous war, 
it may appear superfluous to insist upon the great duty of 
maintaining a thoroughly educated, disciplined, trained, 
effective national army. The reduction of our army from a 
million or more men in arms to 50,000, 40,000, 30,000, and 
25,000 is one of the marvels of modern history. It is no less 
strange to find in the public prints and in the halls of legisla- 
tion, sometimes among thoughtful, well-read men, the sugges- 
tion, if not the belief, that still further reductions miglrt, and if 
they might, that they ought to be made. Those who recklessly 



declare that we have no need whatever of any army are not 
worth regarding as an element in the discussion. It is alto- 
gether childish to prophesy that we are never to have war 
with any foreign power. It is almost equally foolish to say 
that we need not continue any precautions against civil war. 
The man would have been called a silly dreamer who had 
foretold in 1860 that the whole land was to tremble be- 
neath the tread of a million and a half of soldiers, and bat- 
tles were to be fought equal to those of Napoleon in the 
numbers engaged, the fierceness of the combat, and the mag- 
nitude of the interests involved. It is good to believe that 
the world has made some progress toward peace, but the 
spirit of injustice has not altogether departed from nations, 
nor has arbitration become an accepted remedy for interna- 
tional controversies. Our situation reduces largely the 
probability of war with the greater powers of the earth, but 
does not destroy the possibility. All the great and so-called 
Christian nations, save our own, are overweighting their peo- 
ples, crushing them to the ground beneath the burden of gi- 
gantic standing armies. All the resources of science are 
drafted into the service of rulers who are continually and 
fiercely struggling to surpass each other in the efiectiveness 
of their means of offense and defense. To reduce or disband 
our armies, to dismiss West Point and Annapolis acadeniies 
and make no attempt to garner up for ourselves improve- 
ments, inventions, and discoveries in the art of warfare, 
would be supreme folly. Can even the most unreasonable of 
the teasing critics of our national army deny this ? If not, 
then certainly what is to be done in this regard should be 
energetically, thoroughly, and most completely done. We 
are glad to believe that the enlisted force need not be very 
large; but, while at 25,000 or 30,000 it maybe sufficient 
for our purposes and ridiculously small in comparison with 
European armies, yet the more, therefore, is it the part of 
wisdom and economy that whatever we have should be the 
best possible, the most complete of its kind, and capable of 
rapid expansion. 



5 

Our academies can give us not more than 120 educated 
soldiers and sailors each year. It is hardly possible, there- 
fore, that in case of a great foreign war, we could summon to 
the field 3,000 fully trained officers from the schools, even 
including those who will in the future, as they have most 
honorably in the past, come promptly from civil life at the 
call of their country. I do not underestimate — ^and one can 
hardly exaggerate — the value of the marvelous facility an 
American citizen has for converting himself into a useful 
and effective soldier, but this is inevitably a matter of time ; 
and that he may so convert himself, the services of a trained 
corps of instructors and leaders are indispensable. I do not 
believe that great generals can be extemporized. The facts 
will show a few, but very few, who were not trained from 
youth in the study and practice of arms — very few generals 
who did not know from actual practice what is required of 
the captain of a company. It is hardly possible for a man 
who never marched or maiux'uvred on foot with his soldiers 
to comprehend the time rei^uired and the difficulties to be 
overcome in rapid and long marching and quick deployment 
over the obstacles of fence, and bog, and wood. From the 
growing ranks of our skilled civil engineers, engineer offi- 
cers can be made ; but that requires time. From our innu- 
merable great manufactories of iron and steel, ordnance offi- 
cers can be trained ; but that requires time. Our foundries 
could in time cast us great guns, but it would require years 
to bring their work to an e(iuality with foreign cannon. We 
have men enough of chemical and mechanical ingenuity 
who can learn to make torpedoes, but that requires time ; 
and this branch of offensive and defensive warfare is assum- 
ing a most surprising importance. The superficial critic 
thinks mounted men can be summoned and mustered in a 
few days, but old soldiers know that it takes years of train- 
ing to make a good cavalry corps. Every college boy takes 
a few lessons in the science of projectiles ; but the art of 
compounding powder for small arms and heavy guns, the 
best methods of rifling and loading, the form and weight of 



6 

shot, large and small — all those things are incessantly being 
studied and tested by the brightest men that can be called 
into the service, in other nations. When war is made in 
these days, it is made quickly and with tremendous force. 
To be behind the times in any of these things is to be almost 
defenseless for months and to be at a disadvantage for years, 
No boasting about American ingenuity and energy will 
prove it otherwise. 

I make a distinction between the warlike spirit and the 
military spirit. The former might prevail largely and com- 
pletely dominate a people led away for the time by passion — 
by an unworthy motive, of whatever character ; but the 
military spirit may rightly prevail in a people controlled by 
the most peaceful purposes. The gentleman skilled in the 
use of firearms, who could be prompt to defend his house- 
hold, differs much from the prize-fighter and the reckless 
highwayman of the frontier. I would establish a high ideal 
of the American professional soldier ; select for our acade- 
mies the very flower of onr youth, make the standard of ad- 
mission high, and insist upon thoroughly keeping up to the 
mark at every stage, no more in matters of mere knowledge 
and intellectual power than in what goes to make a man of 
fine temper, high honor, and pure patriotism. In all mat- 
ters of engineering and of ordnance — ^in all that pertains to 
the equipment of infantry and cavalry, small arms and ar- 
tillery, what we have should be the very best that our peo- 
ple, fertile in invention, can devise and manufacture. Capa- 
ble officers should be constantly gleaning, from books and 
by personal observation, the best fruits of foreign military 
progress. Enough of the munitions of war should be kept 
in store to supply a very considerable army instantly. Some- 
where, in public arsenals maintained by the Government, and 
perhaps also in private manufactories, should be the machin- 
ery sufficient to manufacture with great rapidity the very 
best of arms. 

Thus far we have not called for a very heavy annual ex- 
penditure or for anything beyond the exercise of the most 



ordinary common souse as a national policy. If this be true, 
some other things follow necessarily. Having assented to 
and established a policy, it should be steadily adhered to 
with a reasonable financial economy, it is true, but in a spirit 
of generous, selt-respecting confidence. 

There has prevailed of late a most unjust, unreasonable, 
and unkind spirit, incessantly carping at the Army, alter- 
nately stopping and starting promotion, jealous of honorable 
rank, sneering at the compensation attorded, conveying to 
sensitive and honorable men who have devoted themselves 
to one of the noblest of professions, the impression that they 
are suporfiuities in peace — expensive and vexatious luxuries. 
Better teach the young men who are called to the study of 
arms, that they are the selected champions and vindicators 
of the nation ; that to be made a soldier of the Republic is 
to be called to a high and noble duty ; that the country has 
a right to demand of him industry, temperance, courage, 
profound respect and obedience to law, the finest sense of 
honor, and, when the time comes- a cheerful and ready risk 
of his life. If he proves himself worthy of the profession, 
let him have the respect he has a right to command ; let him 
have ungrudgingly a reasonable, and even a liberal compen- 
sation ; let him be assured of a thoughtful consideration of 
his rank and advancement — a grateful, cordial acknowledg- 
ment of his services in war, and in old age an honorable re- 
tirement without petty grumbling over his declining useful- 
ness. Let us have an army worthy of honor, or none at all, 
and if worthy of honor, let it have honor. 

A regular army in a republic like ours can be but the 
nucleus of a very much greater possible force. The States 
are wisely forbidden by the Constitution to maintain stand- 
ing armies, but it is right for many reasons that they should 
make it their constant policy to maintain a well-organized 
and effective militia. JSTone of the calamities that have hap- 
pened to other peoples are impossible to us. I can hardly 
conceive it within the bounds of any reasonable probability 
that a regular army will ever be seriously dangerous to the 



liberties of the country ; but the time when there is no dan- 
ger is the time to guard against the possibility of danger, 
and an eflective militia in each state on the one hand, a 
compact Federal army on the other, and that patriotism and 
sound sense in the people, without which our Government is 
in any event a failure, reduce the dangers of armed force to 
a minimum. By the theory of the Constitution and by the 
letter of our law all men within the specified years and ca- 
pable of bearing arms are enrolled in the militia, but the 
time when all such were sunnnoned once or twice a year to 
the farce of a company and regimental muster has passed 
away forever, and it is the imperative necessity and duty of 
every State, if it excuses the majority of the enrolled militia 
from any active duty, to draw from such excuse the moneys 
suflicient to thoroughly equip and reasonably drill a compact, 
mobile, and effective force of at least some regiments and 
brigades and divisions, according to the population of such 
State. The same considerations in some respects apply to 
this that apply to the Regular Army. Whatever is to be 
done at all must be well done. Skeleton regiments of one 
or two hundred, shabbily equipped and clumsily drilled, 
making a jolly farce or a tipsy spree of a few days of nomi- 
nal drill every year, are Avorse than nonsense. The experi- 
ence of a number of our States since the war has shown 
that what is most desirable in this respect can easily be 
accomplished. 

As time passes and the actual experience of many men be- 
comes less and less available, there is a danger that the im- 
provement in the militia may cease ; wherefore I urge the 
consideration and adoption of a thoughtful policy in this 
matter ; in the first place, the creation of a militia worthy 
of respect, and secondly the cheerful tender of that respect 
on the part of legislatures and the people. My own little 
State contains a very admirable organized militia, number- 
ing something over 2,000. It is supported by a moderate 
tax levied on all men liable to military duty, but excused 
therefrom. It numbers about 500 for each representative in 



9 

Congress. If a militia of the same extent were maintained 
throughout all the States, there could be summoned to the 
march in twenty-four hours 145,000 completely equipped 
and admirably drilled soldiers, needing but a little of that in- 
dispensable experience which comes from the thunder of can- 
non, the whistling of bullets, and a few weeks of camping 
and tramping in all weathers to make them an invincible 
army whose numbers could easily be doubled under the same 
number of officers. Scatter through it 2,000 professional sol- 
diers having at their fingers' ends all the military science 
of the world, pervaded by and communicating to those 
around them all the purest, finest and noblest aspirations of 
the true soldier, and what more could we desire ? Situated 
as we are, fighting for an lionorable purpose, waging ajusti- 
tiable war, (and, indeed, I hope and believe we shall never be 
called upon to wage any other,) we should be ready for the 
world. 

What I have said of the necessity of a constant state of 
preparation applies with even greater force tothelTavy than 
to the Army. The fighting ships of modern times cannot 
be extemporized from the mercantile marine. We must 
maintain a Navy, and yet the best that we can do becomes 
antiquated year by year. Nothing remains then but a close 
calculation of what absolutely must be ready in case of in- 
stant conflict. An always ready judgment, modified from 
month to month as science developes the art of naval war- 
fare, so that the best known vessels and ordnance in the 
world could be summoned to service with the day and night 
energy of our large manufacturers, must be, to a large 
extent, our substitute for a full r.avy. 

I have had reference thus far to foreign com[)lications or 
to such difficulties at home as might rise to the dignity of 
war; but there are other and exceedingly important consid- 
erations. The armed forces of the country, the Regular Army 
and the trained militia, may be, and sometimes are, called to 
duties far more disagreeable, yet equally essential to the 
maintenance of law and order and liberty. Every stable 



10 

and wise govermneut has in view always the possibility of 
a resort to armed force against its own citizens. Besides 
those disturbances which rise to the dignity of insurrection 
or civil war, I refer to the lesser evils of domestic violence, 
coming down to the riot groat and small, and all such infrac- 
tions of law as break the public peace and surpass the power 
of the civil authority to suppress. Law and pul^lic senti- 
ment ought to seduously guard against a too prompt resort 
to the soldier, but it is equally an offense against sound prac- 
tice to omit providing the ready means of vindicating law 
in the last emergency. We know too well what civil war 
means. In the earlier days of the Republic, the Shay's rebel- 
lion in Massachusetts, the whisky insurrection in Pennsyl- 
vania, the incip lent treason of Aaron Burr, gave us serious 
warning. Not infrequently there are disorders, due to per- 
gonal or local causes, overpowering the ordinary means of 
keeping the peace. The native American riots of Boston, 
the similar disturbances in Philadelphia and other cities, the 
Macready and Forrest riots in 1849 in N^ew York, the terri 
ble draft riots in JSTow York in 1863, and the more wide- 
spread and much more serious railroad strikes and riots of 
1877, are examples of what it were folly to say we need not 
expect again. As the nation grows in population, from its 
now forty-five millions to its fifty, sixty, and a hundred, the 
eddies, surges, and great tides of social, religious, and politi- 
cal agitation will occasionally break bounds. The Govern- 
ment, which respects itself and properly feels the immense 
responsibility of guarding the lives and property of its citi- 
zens, while it will pai nfully and reluctantly resort to armed 
force, and will first compel the civil authority to exhaust its 
resources, will nevertheless be re ady at last to act with de- 
cision and overwhelming power. 

The element of force has its indispensable place in any 
well-considered moral or political theory of government. To 
dally with the determined violators of law is supreme cruelty 
to the peaceable citizen. Severe as it sounds, it is mercy as 
well as justice to call at the proper time upon crushing, irre - 



11 

sist.il>le, and if need be killing force, and this force must be 
ready; silent, slumbering perhaps, but ready, and it must l)e 
known to be so. The very knowledge of its existence is a 
repressing, peace-giving intiuence tliat cannot be over-esti- 
mated. In general it suffices. To publish to the nation that, 
under no circumstances, should the standing army or the 
militia be used to sustain the civi' authority, would be to 
invite anarchy. The world is better than it once was. Edu- 
cation and Christianity gradually give us a higher type of 
civilization, but after boasting of the nobility of human na- 
ture it is not a little mortifying to see what becomes of men 
when they p)ass beyond the bounds of organized and fortified 
civil law. The rush of the loose elements of the world to 
the gold-fields of Australia and California gave us some dis- 
agreeable illustrations, but the English and American, the 
old Anglo-Saxon instinct of organization, self-protection, and 
obedience to law, came to the rescue in advance of the formal 
law-giver and the sherifii". A government without force is a 
contemptible farce. Liberty means law ; law implies order 
and implicit obedience. The difference between the law of 
the king and the law of the republic is, that the former 
is the will of one man, usually with much of regard to 
natural justice; while the latter is the will of the whole 
people, the common sense of most, the judgment of all men, 
who are supposed to know more than one man. The obliga- 
tions and sanctions are equal in either case. That we are a 
democracy means none the less that our laws are to be abso- 
lutely obeyed without a question, than if they came from an 
irresistible despot. Liberty without law, justice, and obedi- 
ence, is not liberty. The rule of the mob is the most terri- 
ble, insane, and merciless of all rule. Political philosophers, 
speculating upon the evils of a republic, prophesied that the 
multitude would have slight regard for laws of their own 
creation. Some of those philosophers, examining the Amer- 
ican republic, have manifested a highly complimentary sur- 
prise to find that nowliere is law in general more regarded 
because it is law, than among us — and that is because it is 



12 

our own law. That which gives it strength is precisely that 
which some thought would give it weakness. The American 
citizen feels a sense of personal wrong and insult when law 
is insolently defied. 

In the matter of danger to society from individual crimes, 
a republic cannot differ materially from a monarchy; but 
there are the painful possibilities of riots arising from social, 
communistic, or widespread and inflammable political ten- 
dencies, and from the prejudices of race, caste, and religion. 

In protecting itself against wrongdoers society begins with 
the single constable of the ancient law, and a justice of the 
peace. Above the constable stands his superior, the sher- 
iff", who comes to the scene when criminals resist with vio- 
lence or in large numbers. And to the sheriff" is committed 
a power almost without limit in the discretion of its exer- 
cise, but with law in the background, to measure afterward 
the wisdom of its employment. The magistrate and the 
sheriff' have the right to summon to their assistance for the 
instant suppression of violence and tlie arrest of the offend- 
ers, all citizens of lawful age, (all above fifteen, under the 
ancient law,) of whatever grade or calling, within their 
jurisdiction, and to call them from all other duty. The 
summons permits no excuse, and justifies all necessary vio- 
lence. By the ancient law of England, indeed, the sheriff's 
might arm themselves and all whom they summoned, and 
proceed to sacrifice life until order was restored. 

The posse comiiatas supplied in full the indispensable ele- 
ment of irresistible force. Indeed, prior to the time of 
Charles the First, in England there was little of what is 
known as a standing army. All men were armed under the 
law, — the general call upon the 'posse comiiatas meant a call 
for armed men, and the sheriff was practically military as 
well as civil commandant 

" The establishment of guards and garrisons in the reign of 
Charles the Second led to their employment, under the or- 
ders of the Crown, in the discharge of police duties, and the 
introduction into the civil polity of England of such an in- 



13 

strumeiit of coercion created a spirit of aversion toward the 
army and of suspicion toward the dynasty resting its author- 
ity upon such support. The law of En52:land had made am- 
ple provision for preventing riots and disorderly meetings of 
the people and for their prompt and ciFectual suppression 
whenever they arose." By the common law every private 
person may lawfully endeavor, of his own authority, and 
without any warrant or sanction of the magistrate, to sup- 
press a riot hy every means in his power. He may disperse 
or assist in dispersing those who are assembled ; he may stay 
those who are engaged in it from executing their purpose; 
he may stop and prevent others whom he shall see coming 
up from joining the rest. Not only has he authority to do 
this, but, as a good citizen, he is bound to do it to the ut- 
most of his ability ; and the justice of the peace, the sheriff 
or other magistrate, or any other subjects or citizens might 
arm themselves to suppress riots and rebellions or resist ene- 
mies ; but it was advised that it was most discreet that every 
man should attend and assist the justices. By very early 
statutes of England, any two justices, together with the sher- 
iff' or under-sheriff' of the county, were authorized and di- 
rected to come with the power of the county to arrest ri- 
oters. 

With the decay of feudalism and with the neglect and 
final disuse of the laws compelling every citizen of lawful 
age to be constantly supplied with arms, reliance for the 
supp^ression of disorder was placed more largely upon such 
troops as the king had at his command, and then ai'ose the 
long-continued struggle of Parliament against the assumed 
prerogative of the king to maintain a standing army of his 
own free will, resulting in the abdication of James tlie Sec- 
ond, the coronation of William and Mary, and the famous 
Bill of Rights, by which tlie king was forbidden to raise or 
keep a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, 
without the consent of Parliament. Then followed the Mu- 
tiny act, the annually renewed act by which Parliament es- 
tablishes the numbers of the army, and practically holds it 



14 

under the same control guaranteed to Congress by our Con- 
stitution. There is found constantly running through Eng- 
lish history within the past two hundred years a strong, in- 
deed an extraordinary prejudice, as it seems to Americans, 
against a standing army. That prejudice has passed away 
to a very great extent. The cause thereof was the misuse 
of troops beyond the reach of Parliament against the liberties 
of the people. As the people, through their Parliament, 
came to exercise full control over the numbers and pay of 
the army, they began to fear it less as an instrument of the 
King's will ; but we inherit or borrow from our English an- 
cestors and cousins a strong feeling that the use of the army 
against our own citizens while a duty, is nevertheless an 
odious and a disagreeable duty, as their highest authorities 
have themselves termed it. 

The power of the sheriff to raise the posse comitatus re- 
mains, but with the disuse of arms among the people there 
came to be felt in certain emergencies a great want of the 
effective force of trained soldiers. Singularly enough, there 
is found no distinct provision in English statute law by 
which the relations of the soldier to the civil magistrate are 
governed. Special orders have been from time to time given, 
and it is well understood that troops must be furnished 
whenever the civil magistrate shall require. The standing 
i nstructions for the government of all officers liable to be 
called upon such for duty are very sagacious and humane. The 
officer is to hold himself entirely, rigidly, subordinate to the 
civil magistrate. In case he is compelled to resort to firing, 
the instructions are minute as to the manner in which it 
shall be done, and even the manner of his marching. He 
may try first one or two files, to see if they may not suffice. 
If they do not, he may add more. He must be careful not 
to fire a single shot more than may appear sufficient to re- 
store order. He may not fire over tlie heads of those near- 
est, both because that might slay innocent persons and because 
he would thus embolden the wicked. It is another singular 
fact that there is no statutory authority in England for call- 



15 

ing out what is there styled the disembodied militia to act 
in support of the civil power. Yet they would be included , 
though in a disorganized condition, in the right of the sheriff 
or the magistrates to call the citizens, without distinction, 
to their support. Since 1769 the legality of employing mil 
itary power in aid of the civil authority has never been 
seriously questioned. 

Within the present century a new force lias grown up to 
meet the public want. The Duke of Wellington in 1829 
made the suggestion which led to the organization of the 
metropolitan police as known throughout the British Empire, 
and as copied in the United States. So much accustomed 
are the people of both nations to respect them as a great 
friendly power, essential to the preservation of peace, that 
one learns with surprise that at the origin of this force it 
was looked upon with suspicion, and encountered strong op- 
position. It was regarded as hostile to the liberty of the 
citizen, and a dangerous organization. A very eminent 
English writer remarks that had the police appeared as now 
with the military uniform and the spiked helmet, it is doubt- 
ful if their organization or presence would have been per- 
mitted. Yet their total numbers in the United Kingdom 
are greater than were those of the whole regular army in 
1793. The metropolitan police, as known there and here, 
are almost a military force. They are selected men, thor- 
oughly drilled and organized in a semi-military form, yet 
they are but the constables of the ancient law in uniform 
and constantly upon duty. They are permitted the club 
and revolver, to approach still more nearly the regular soldier, 
Wellington devised them as a counterpoise to the guards 
and because he shared the distaste of all soldiers for 
service against his fellow-citizens. 

In the United States we have a divided soldiery with a 
divided relation to the civil power. The national Govern- 
ment has its sphere of duties and powers which, through 
great tribulation, have become tolerably well defined in the 
iudo:mcnt of all patriotic men. It alone is authorized to 



16 

maintain a standing army, and within the defined limits of 
the law it may and must use that Army for the mainten- 
ance of proper national supremacy. Partly because of its 
having such force always ready, the States are authorized 
through their legislatures, or Governor, to call for its assis- 
tance in case of insurrection or domestic violence. There is 
no sense or reason in this country for the fierce prejudice 
against the National Army that had such a philosophical and 
natural foundation in England. Our Army is not the army 
of a king, maintained by his prerogative. It is maintained 
by our votes and direction, by taxes levied by ourselves upon 
ourselves. It is used and governed by an Executive and by 
officers who receive their commissions, their pay, and all 
their ordinances and regulations from us. 

And yet it is not well that the people of our States shoul d 
fall into an easy habit of relying upon national power in 
cases of domestic violence ; wherefore it seems to me every 
one must admit the very great importance of a respectable 
and efficient militia. It was not agreeable to see, as we 
have seen within two years past, the executives of several 
States compelled to call upon the ISTational Government for 
the scanty force of Federal troops kept on the Atlantic coast ; 
but, on the other hand, it was extremely satisfactory to see 
that nowhere was a single soldier of the National Army as- 
saulted, nor was it necessary for the smallest squad moving 
through the most violent tumults to fire a single shot. 
Wherever the national fiag was carried by our boys in blue 
it was saluted with honor. It was received as a blessing 
by the well disposed citizens, and even the rioter would of- 
ten grant it respect as an excuse for deviating from the dan- 
gerous course upon which he had started. 

Naturally enough our course has been analogous to that 
of Great Britain. The militia in most of our States has 
fallen into a still more lamentable condition. The Constitu- 
tion ordains that " Congress shall have power to provide for 
calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union 
to suppress insurrection, and repel invasions; and that it 



17 

shall provide for organizing, arming and disci])]ining tlie 
militia, and for governing such part of them as may be em- 
ployed in the service of tlie United States, reserving to the 
States, respectively, the appointment of the ollicers and the 
authority of training the militia according to the discipline 
prescribed by Congress." At the time of the organization 
of the Grovernment Congress proceeded to discharge this 
duty by the enactment of laws adapted to the time, but the 
laws are as nearly useless as those that but a short time ago 
provided for arming all English youths with the bow and 
arrow. The statute of 1792 is still in force and published in 
the latest revised editions of the statutes. It prescribes that 
every able-bodied male citizen of the States over eighteen 
and under forty-five years of age shall be enrolled. You will 
be pleased to learn that every citizen who shall have notice of 
his enrollment, " shall be constantly provided with a good 
musket or fire-lock of a bore sufficient for balls of the eighteenth 
part of a pound, a sufficient bayonet, two spare fiints, and a 
knapsack, a pouch with a box therein to contain not less than 
twenty-four cartridges suited to the bore of his musket or 
fire-lock, each cartridge to contain a proper quantity of pow- 
der and ball ; or with a good rifle, knapsack, shot-pouch, 
and powder-horn, twenty balls suited to the bore of his rifle, 
and a quarter of a pound of powder," and shall ap[iear 
so armed when called out. Each 'commissioned oflicer 
shall be " armed with a sword or hanger and spontoon." 

With tlie enactment of that law and the urgent appeals 
of Washington and Gen. Knox for the organization of an 
effective militia, as well as the maintenance of a sufficient 
array, the interest of the country on the subject apparently 
ceased, save that in 1808 (Congress made what was for the 
time the exceedingly liberal permanent appropriation of 
$200,000 annually to provide arms and equipm.ents for the 
militia. We have nearly seven times the population of 1808 
and certainly more than twenty times the resources, but a 
proposition to appropriate three or four million of dollars an- 
nually for the militia, would be reeeived'with astonishment 
by Congress. 



18 

I have uo expectation that anything I may say here will 
be heeded beyond the day of its utterance, but I follow in 
the footsteps of many illustrious predecessors in enforcing 
the duty of a well-organized militia. I do so because it 
would furnish the executives of the several States the means 
of enforcing law in nineteen cases out of twenty without 
any resort to Federal power, and thereby escaping many 
controversies and heartburnings, I do it because it is the 
duty of each State to maintain order within its own limits, 
and command respect for its own laws. I do it because it 
would excuse the National Government from the mainten- 
ance of a large standing army, and would aftbrd the most 
economical and satisfactory preparation for a foreign war. 

We perceive then that the indispensable element of force 
in civil government is supplied in this Republic, first, by the 
right of the sheriff and the justice of the peace to call upon 
the power of the county to summon every citizen above fif- 
teen years of age to his assistance — to summon them singly 
or in bodies, armed or unarmed — and to beat down the ene- 
mies of public order after due wai-ning at whatever cost of 
suffering or life. And in many of the States due provision 
is made by which the sheriff" may summon to his aid the 
organized militia of his county fully armed and equipped 
under their proper officers. In cases of prolonged or greater 
disturbance the Chief Magistrate of the State goes to the res- 
cue and with analogous powers summons to his aid the 
armed force of the whole militia if need be, theoretically 
every citizen between the ages of 18 and 45, with the arms 
which the law theoretically supposes him to have ready for 
service. By way of niaking the keeper of the peace, the 
simple constable, more powerful, and to avoid as far as pos- 
sible a resort to the military power to maintain order in the 
larger cities, modern civilization has uniformed, and to some 
extent armed, the metropolitan po'ice. In case of still fur- 
ther domestic violence and insurrection, the legislature, if it 
be in session, or if not, the Executive of the State, may call 
upon the I'rosident of the United Stales, who has at his ser- 



10 

vice for tlie restoration of order the niilitiji of all the States 
and the land and naval forces of the United States. There 
is still another class of necessities calling for armed inter- 
vention. For the President is sworn to execute the laws. Many 
instances are specified in the statutes of his power to use 
the land and naval forces, and he is in general directed, in 
case of insurrections against State governments, upon proper 
application, to call for such number of the militia of aii}^ 
other State or States as he deems sufficient to suppress the 
insurrection, or to employ such part of the land and naval 
forces of the United States as he deems necessarj'. He has 
like authority whenever, by reason of obstructions, combi- 
nations, or assemblies of persons, or rebellion against the 
authority of the Government of the United States, it shall 
become impracticable to enforce by the ordinary course of 
judicial proceedings the laws of the United States, in goi- 
eral within any State or Territory. In accordance, there- 
fore, with the declaration that, " We, the people, in order to 
form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic 
tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the gen- 
eral welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves 
and our posterity," establish the Constitution, Congress has, 
among other innumerable wise provisions pertaining to in- 
ternal affairs, duly provided, in theory at least, for that in- 
dispensable backing and irresistible support, the military 
arm ; and if there be one thing in relation to this that is 
more clearly understood than another by the American 
people, it is tliat the soldier is subordinate to the civil officer 
in the enforcement of law. Wherefore, I protest, as unjust 
to the Army and dangerous to the Government, against a 
false economy, and an unreasonable jealousy of the soldier 
and the profession of arms. I do not assume to fix the numbers 
of the national Army, or the numbers of our trained militia. 
Possibly, of the former, 25,000 or 30,000 may be sufficient. 
I trust it is in all matters concerning the protecting of the 
public property and the maintenance of our fortifications, 
and the keeping of tlie public peace. I have had serious 



20 

doubts wlicu I perceived the very great labors and sutt'erings 
of our soldiers in repeated instances in those unhappy wars 
which it seems our fate to wage constantly with the Indians. 
Apparently sometimes it was thought improper to take ad- 
vantage of this particular enemy, and that a force in nowise 
superior to his own ought to be sent against him. If there 
be two hundred Indians to be subdued, it is certainly more 
humane, and I shall reach some souls if I say more econom- 
ical, to send against them a thousand men, who may prevail 
without any iighting, than to send three hundred who may 
lose fifty in a fierce combat. Certainly that is the policy of 
a wise general in ordinary warfare. If it be possible to gain 
his end without the sacrifice of men, by the display of an 
overwhelming force, he should be glad to do it. He is a 
murderer if he so measures numbers as to make an unneces- 
sary fight. 

To discourse upon the dangers to liberty of any such reg 
ular army as we have ever maintained or are likely to main- 
tain in time of peace is an injustice to the American soldier 
and a lamentable misjudgment of the American citizen. 
That 25^000, or 50,000, or 100,000 regular troops, under the 
lead of an ambitious general, could overthrow the American 
Government is not within the limits of possibility; and if 
we may judge of the future by the past, there is even less 
likelihood that, any great American soldier will ever under- 
take it. If he shall try it, we will send a constable after 
him- Beneath the millions of citizens capable of bearing 
arms in such an emergency, he would go down like a reed. 
Ju ged as a whole, we have had no more loyal and patriotic 
body of men in the country than the officers of the regular 
army. Even during the late great rebellion a larger }»ropor- 
tion of them remained true to tlie flag than of any other 
class of men, executive, judicial, legislative, professional, or 
of whatever sort, even clerical. This ought to have been 
expected from their special education as the national cham- 
pions, yet if one considers the legal doctrines taught those 
who were natives of the South, even in some measure creep- 



21 

ing into tlie law-books used at West Point, the surprise is 
that so few joined the rebellion. Still, in support of the 
}>roposition I am now urging, I can summon even the rebel 
West-Pointers themselves, for within their sphere they were 
without exception loyally subordinate to their own civil gov- 
ernment. 

Our standing army, dependent from year to year upon the 
appropriations of the Congress, officered by men who have 
slowly won their way to the head, promoted by the jud*)-- 
ment of the Chief Executive, under the eye of a watchful 
people, and scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
from the Lakes to the Gulf, is in no respect likely to be 
subordinated to treasonable purposes. I speak of the officers. 
Observe, as to the privates, that there is no recorded instance 
of so much as a company's siding with the reljellion at 
its outbreak. And from its organization to this day the 
tone of the army has been that befitting soldiers and gen 
tlemen. I admit exceptions, but they are certainly quite as 
few as any man has a right to expect of poor human nature. 
For one, during the late great war, I thought sometimes 
with a disagreeable apprehension of the multitude of per- 
sonal quarrels that would break out everywhere after the 
cessation of hostilities. You and I knew many instances of 
wounded feeling and real or imaginary injustice, and natur- 
ally supposed that an occasion would be sought for some 
sort of redress of grievances by appeal to public opinion or 
the tribunals of the army. You have heard of a very few 
painful exceptionss, and on the other hand, one of the most 
satisfactory, gratifying, and honorable chapters of the his- 
tory of that struggle records the friendships between our 
great leaders, I know nothing finer, as an example of 
personal friendship or of exalted patriotism, than some of 
the correspondence between Sherman and Grant, or of the 
devoted friendships of a majority of the noble band of chiefs. 

Ko, we need fear no attack upon our liberties from any 
army that America will ever organize. The high aim of the 
soldier is subordinate to the civil authority, and if he indulges 



22 

in ambition outride of bis profession, it is stimubxtefl by tbe 
example of tbe generous confidence and bigb reward given 
many of bis predecesfors. Wasbington, Jackson, Harrison, 
Taylor, and Grant, of our Presidents, proved tbemselves in 
all tbings wortby of the bigbest respect of tbe American 
people, but in large degree tbey earned tbe preferment to 
wbicb tbe triumpbal voice of tbe people carried tbem by 
tlieir services as soldiers ; nor will any soldier of tbe Ameri- 
can republic seek its bigb bonors save by proving a noble 
devotion to tbe civil law, tbe Constitution, and tbe ancient 
rigbts and liberties of tbe people. I am not to-day elevating 
tbe soldier's calling above any otber, but only vindicating it 
against certain false prejudices and trasby, but in some re- 
gard dangerous, talk tbat would degrade bim in bis own 
estimation, abolisb tbe army, and nurse a bitter hatred of 
tbat element of force wbicb all moral law teacbes us must 
be beld in reserve in any government. Tbis is a government 
of tbe people, by tbe people, and for tbe people. But tbat 
government so made, once establisbed, sball in no wbit fail 
of tbe power and majesty accorded to any otber. Tbe Con- 
stitution, tbe law^s, and tbe Union must be defended and 
maintained on every incb of space, in every second of time. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011 393 646 ^ 



